Blog 4 - Schwartz

Section One - Schwartz discusses her father's perspective on America with the limited understanding of an American teenager. She has no comprehension of her father's background. Her reflections are mostly of her American lifestyle and her father's comments about it.

Two - Schwartz then talks about Rindheim as she remembers it during her visit when she was age 13. She refers to the Black Forest as Hansel and Gretal country and thinks of childhood movies when referring to the Nazis. When she sees her father's home town, she questions his stories and douts that he walked around with a book in his pocket. She knows no German and explains how her father decided when he and his family arrived at Ellis Island that they would no longer speak the language of those who drove them out. As a 13 year old, she wants to see inside her father's house and his room. Her father reminisces but she doesn't appreciate the plainness and oldness of the synagogue. Swartz also interjects things said during her visit 40 years later. She makes a parallel between the Rindheim of the 1990's and Forest Hills with regard to the changes in ethnicity of its inhabitants. She presently reflects that she wishes she could discuss this with her father.

Three - She is back talking about her visit to Rindheim with her father when she was 13. He talks about his religiious customs and remarks about the form in which they continue in Queens. She remarks how her father follows her mother to the car although he led 40 members of his family out of Germany at the time of Hitler's rise to power in 1933. He doesn't want to go inside the old synagogue either. Schwartz mentions how in 1953 there were no movies or museum to give her details of what happened to the Jews during World War II. Her father was hesitant to talk about the night the Nazis burned the synagogue. He was already in America but had been told the story. At 13, she understands only what she had seen in the movies or at the circus. During the visit, her parents did not want to stand out in the open or re-enter buildings.

Four - Schwartz begins again about her visit when she was 13. She compares her father's old school to her public grammar school in Queens. As a 13 year old, she asks why the school children were divided into two groups - Jews and Christians. Her father explains that that was the way it was done. She wants to know if Jews and Christians played together the way they did in Queens and her father said that they did. The only time she reports that either parent smiled during this visit is when her mother recalled the wedding where she and the author's father met.
Five - During this childhood visit, they go to the old cemetary. The key was hanging on the peg where it had always hung. This is where Rindheim Jews were buried before Hitler's reign. She refers again to the forest, this time calling it enchanted. They found the graves of her father's parents and grandparents. His parents died of infection, not Hitler. She tries to picture them. She could only picture her mother's parents who lived in Queens. These grandparents told stories of how they escaped also. She placed stones on the graves of her father's parents as her father asked. She reflects that years later there were more stones but that during her initial visit, there were few. Schwartz resists connecting with this family history. They come upon children's graves. She reminisces about her sister who died in America before she was born. She didn't know much about her either. Her father spoke of the Jews who stayed in Rindheim and about their fate, including that of his aunt who stayed behing believing that she would be safe. This aunt was not buried in the cemetary as she had been "deported." She reads the memorial for the Jews persecuted during the war but again tries not to be touched. There are no names so she just pictures a handful of faceless people. When she sees the grave of a World War I hero, she pictures an American movie star.

Six - It is now 40 years later and Schwartz advises that actually it was 87 Jews who were deported from her father's village and died in concentration camps. She still has no names or faces so these Jews remain anonymous. She remembers that when she was 13 and had not lost anyone close, she was impressed that a thousand Jews related to her were buried safely at the cemetery. Now that her father is gone, she appreciates his history.

The reader grows up with the author. Each section shows more awareness of her family's past. Her reflections become more insightful in each section. Schwartz understands more and more as she gets older and especially after she visits Rindheim again in 1993. Her reflections mature and so does the understanding of her readers.